


Crest Baby Trauma

by the_technicolor_whiscash



Category: Fire Emblem: Fuukasetsugetsu | Fire Emblem: Three Houses
Genre: Confessions of love, First Kiss, M/M, Pre and Post Timeskip, based off of improved supports written by a friend of mine, seeing plays together
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-06
Updated: 2021-03-06
Packaged: 2021-03-11 23:01:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,845
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29875332
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/the_technicolor_whiscash/pseuds/the_technicolor_whiscash
Summary: Lorenz and Sylvain realize they have more in common than just a love of romance. They both love plays, and they both have terrible trauma brought on by them having crests.
Relationships: Sylvain Jose Gautier/Lorenz Hellman Gloucester
Comments: 1
Kudos: 8





	Crest Baby Trauma

**Author's Note:**

> So this is based off of an improved series of supports my friend wrote about these two and it really inspired me so I jotted this whole thing up. Bc let’s be real, these boys got both personalities and traumas that match perfectly.

It was nighttime, and Lorenz was busy. As a noble of his status should be. Writing letters, making alliances, forging bonds. Tonight’s task was to strengthen not his title but his body in the training grounds. A training lance firmly grasped in his hands, he did his best to find increasingly creative ways to injure the training dummy. A task he was more than suited to handle on a normal day. 

The issue was, his mind was far away. Stuck on a particular play he had attended, which had a particular classmate in attendance. One he had invented somewhat of a rivalry with. 

Sylvain was much like Lorenz, but in every opposite way. They were both nobles. They both bore crests. They both romanced women. But, while Lorenz sought to woo the fairer sex through his nobility, Sylvain was… nonchalant. He acted like a commoner, throwing his weight around like glue, hoping that eventually he’d stick to something. Lorenz could see from the getgo that his heart was never truly in it. 

Though really, Lorenz knew his own heart wasn’t in many of the relationships he got himself into. It was his duty as a crest-bearing noble to find a wife and have crest-bearing children, carrying on the family line. And he liked many of the women he romanced well enough. The problem was, he didn’t love them. He could probably learn to over time, but the relationship usually never lasted long enough to find out. 

But, back to Sylvain. Why was the nonchalant noble at a play? More importantly, why was he alone? Sylvain never struck Lorenz as particularly cultured, let alone having the patience to sit and watch a performance for a few hours. 

Fortunately for Lorenz, he could ask the man soon, as Sylvain walked into the training grounds. He looked rather sheepish, and had a bruise below his eye. 

“You look as if you’ve lost a fight.” Lorenz said, as he stuck the dummy once again. 

“Yeah, you could call it that.” Sylvain picked up a lance as well, aiming it at a dummy across the room. “A girl’s father got mad at me for flirting with his daughter, as if she wasn’t a fully grown adult capable of making her own decisions. If it had been her who punched me, I wouldn’t be mad.”

“You must act with more subtlety, my good man. Or at the very least show the father you have something to offer.” 

“Oh yeah, cause you’re the master of subtlety, Mr Noble.” 

Lorenz scoffed. “Touchée.” Finally, a conversational opening. “Last night, if my memory serves me correctly, I saw you at a play. Alone.”

“I-“

“Ah, before you claim you were stood up, I could see that the seats beside yours were taken by couples.”

Sylvain sighed, smacking his dummy halfheartedly. “Fine, fine. I love plays. You’ve uncovered my dirty little secret. Happy?”

Oddly enough, Lorenz was quite happy. Not only did it reflect well on Sylvain’s character, but the fact it was something nobody else seemingly knew about him was a thrill in and of itself. There was not much about Sylvain that others did not know. And Lorenz happened to love plays too. “As a matter of fact, yes! Because now I have someone of a similar taste to discuss the local theater with.” Leaving the spear lodged in the dummy, Lorenz turned to Sylvain. “I have a proposition.”

Sylvain raised a brow. Lorenz noted a subtle change in his stance, the way his tongue flickered over his lips. “Oh yeah?”

“How about we forget our little romance competition, and instead put our energy into a lively appreciation of theater? I assume as this is your secret thing you have no one else to accompany you, and I find it difficult to find dates who truly appreciate the stage.” 

A faint flush crossed Sylvain’s face, quickly replaced by his normal nonchalant expression. “Alright, I’ll bite. I guess it won’t be so bad to have someone to go with.”

—————

It wasn’t like him to get flustered. Sylvain was suave, smooth, never fazed by anything or anyone. But for some reason, he was fazed by Lorenz, of all people. His Alliance equal, his rival in romance, and now, apparently, his friend. 

Sylvain could tell that there was more to Lorenz than met the eye. All of that pomp and flash was just a ruse, hiding whatever was going on in that head beneath that questionable purple haircut. He could tell, from their conversations, that Lorenz seemed to be in a situation similar to his own, forced to seek out a suitable marriage for the greater good of their family. Not really the best motivation for meeting people, because they could usually see right through it. Or they assumed you were just an asshole. 

And Lorenz, on the outside, seemed like an asshole. He was the Noblest of Nobles, the well-groomed pretty boy who leveraged his status to get the girl. It was irritating beyond belief. 

Then Sylvain began attending the theater with the man, and realized that he was actually quite sensitive. Lorenz was smart, smarter than his outward appearance made him seem, and he had an analytical mind. It made their discussions on the plays they attended much more lively and interesting. And he saw Lorenz’s reactions to the plot, the characters, the settings, and saw that Lorenz was often very moved by them. He also was a crier, crying during tragedies and romantic comedies. And particularly during plays that portrayed a powerful ruler’s manipulation of their son. That was something Sylvain could understand. 

They had never talked about it, of course. Plays were supposed to take your mind off of the problems at hand, not dredge them up and beat you with them. And it seemed as though their friendship would be much the same way, focused on distraction instead of their complex personal problems. 

Tonight’s play had been a romantic comedy, where an ogre falls in love with a princess who’s cursed to turn into a goat every night. Not the best concept, but the goat was funny, and they left laughing. As they walked back to the dormitories, they began their discussion on the play.

“My, that was quite the show.” Lorenz said, a chuckle still ringing through his voice. And it wasn’t fake laughter either, it was a real laugh from deep within. “It seemed as if the goat didn’t enjoy being the center of attention.”

“And the fact it kept eating the set pieces! Who’s idea was it, to have a live goat play your princess for half the play?”

“Someone certainly got fired for that decision. It wouldn’t have been hard to dress the princess up like a goat or an ogre or something!”

“Right? Like come on, you have stage makeup, we know it. Last week they managed to make everyone look like cats, and that worked out great. Though, I will say, the plot of this one made more sense than the plot of the cat one.”

“Most assuredly. And in this one, it made sense for the woman to turn into a goat. There was no reason why the cats needed to be cats.” Lorenz paused. “Hold on, lovely ladies on our right.”

Sylvain’s stomach dropped. He didn’t want to put back on the facade, not yet. “Eh, I’m not really in the mood for a detour tonight.”

“Really? I thought you looked for any chance you could get with a woman.”

“I’m tired. And besides, it’s late. They probably don’t want to talk to us right now anyways.”

“You’re right, I suppose. Though watch out, you don’t want to lose your skill.”

Sylvain gave a forced laugh. “Right. Yeah.”

Lorenz stopped, looking Sylvain in the eye. It unsettled him slightly. “Are you feeling quite alright? You seem… off, somehow.”

“I’m fine. Like I said, just tired.” Physically he was fine. Emotionally however, he was tired of the runthrough. The constant effort of trying to appeal himself to others, for the sake of a marriage he didn’t even want. And truthfully, he was quite enjoying his time alone with Lorenz. It was easy to be around him. 

“If you insist. You needn’t have come to the show if you were feeling exhausted.”

“It’s… never mind. Let’s just get back to the dorms.”

—————

Five years. War had spent five years ravaging Fodlan. Destroying homes, countries, lives. Lorenz was lucky he still had his. He clung desperately into what little he had left, his title, his land, his friends. Though he didn’t know how much longer he’d have those either. His father would probably take all of that, life included, if he found out he was supporting the Professor’s attempts to wrench Fodlan from Edelgard’s grasp. It was only a matter of time. 

There were no more little distractions. No more plays. No more time to dedicate to wooing. It was all war, all the time. And it hurt. 

They had lost friends and classmates to this pointless crusade. Lost people they had cared about. For the people from the monastery, they had lost their home and livelihood. Lorenz even caught Seteth once shaking his head and murmuring, “What do we do… what do we do…” 

Many students had stuck with the Golden Deer throughout all this, mainly because of the Professor. They had brought many of Lorenz’s old classmates together, creating a small but formidable army of knights. It was good to see them again, to know who was alive. Claude, who took charge alongside the Professor. Raphael, who still continued to eat, but dedicated his abilities to carrying supplies and helping others. Linhardt and Mercedes, working as healers. There were no house lines between the students anymore. You were either for the Alliance or the Empire. And thankfully, most of his classmates were for the Alliance. 

Sylvain was another who had joined their noble cause. He gave what help he could around the monastery, and fought in battle as if he had nothing left to lose. Lorenz missed their quiet nights spent together attending plays, missed his amusing company. Despite his reputation for being a womanizer, he truly had a heart, and even now it reflected in his work. He had changed, too, in the five years of war. There was more of a quiet desperation to his actions. 

After one particularly bloody battle in which Sylvain had lost his horse, Lorenz offered to help him back to their camp. Sylvain quickly agreed, since the walk was a good five miles. Sitting behind him, Sylvain wrapped his arms around Lorenz, and Lorenz realized this was the closest he had been to another human being in years. It almost made him sick. 

The road was long, and Lorenz knew Sylvain to be a talkative sort, so it wasn’t surprising when he soon began with, “Hey, you remember that wooing competition we had?”

“Don’t remind me. I’m quite embarrassed I had the audacity back in the day.”

Sylvain laughed. “Believe me, I understand. I was that same kind of ass too. And don’t deny it, you were an ass.”

“That’s… alright fine, so maybe I was.”

“But I don’t bring it up just to insult you. I’ve been thinking about it lately, and I was wondering, why exactly were you so enthusiastic about it in the first place? We both knew it was useless and had no stakes.”

Lorenz sighed. Well, no use hiding it now. They were at war, and Sylvain knowing his messed up family life wasn’t going to hurt anyone. “I was overcompensating. My father, a delightful man who I’m certainly not scared of, was pushing me to marry for the sake of continuing on the family crest. Because apparently, that’s all I’m good for.”

“Makes you feel like a piece of meat, huh.”

“You speak like you know what you’re talking about.”

“I had pretty much the same thing happen to me. But the thing is, I hate it when people try to take advantage of me for my crest. That’s why I try and hide it, because I know if I don’t I won’t be able to tell who’s honest and who’s just trying to have my crest baby. And it sucks. Goddess, it sucks.”

“I know. That is the one thing I agree with Edelgard on, in that she hopes to make crests meaningless.”

“Crests are supposed to be this big blessed thing, but they cause so much more harm than good.” Sylvain’s arms tightened around Lorenz’s torso. “The whole thing, it drove my brother mad.”

It wasn’t hard to remember Sylvain’s brother. To see a man turned into a monster like that was horrific. He could only imagine how much it had hurt to see it happen to your own brother. “I… I too have siblings.”

“Really? I didn’t know.”

“No one does, except for Claude and the Professor. None of them have crests, so they were taken. Cast away somewhere, I know not where. My father never allowed me to seek them out, to contact them or to get to know them. The older ones, I don’t even know their names.”

“Shit, Lorenz, I’m sorry.” 

“I’ve grown to live with it, surely as you live with the loss of Miklan. But it’s part of what jaded me against my father. Through his manipulations, I could see he was a truly brutal and unkind man.”

Lorenz could feel Sylvain’s head come to rest against his shoulder. The intimacy was something welcome. “After the war, we need to do something about that. You and me, we can speak out against using crests for personal gain. We can start to deal with the inequality between those with crests and those without. And we can find your siblings.”

“I’d like that very much.” Hesitantly, Lorenz put a hand over Sylvain’s arm. “You and me. Together.”

“Together.”

The rest of their ride was silent, save for the horse’s hoof beats and the sounds of the forest. Lorenz could’ve sworn Sylvain fell asleep by the way he nearly jumped when they arrived back at camp. Sylvain went off to ask someone about getting a new horse, and Lorenz went back to his tent. 

His mind was reeling. Promises made sleepily on horseback are one thing, but would they really do this? Could they really break down a thousand years of established prejudices and social structures, just the two of them? Certainly the Professor would be on their side, as well as their classmates (many of whom had crest problems themselves), but it was the established lords who would prove difficult. Though perhaps they’d listen to a leader like the Professor. 

Still turning the thoughts over in his mind, he heard a voice at the door of his tent say, “Knock knock.”

Ever the gentleman, Lorenz stood. “Come in.”

It was Sylvain. His face was red, and getting redder by the second. “So, about our conversation-“

Lorenz’s heart dropped into his shoes. “You didn’t mean it.”

“No! No, I did mean it. All of it. But I wanted to elaborate on what I meant when I said I wanted it to be the two of us.” Sylvain ran a hand through his hair, looking away nervously. “Lorenz, I like you. A lot. What I’m trying to say is, I love you, man.” 

A wave of understanding rolled over Lorenz. That did explain his behavior on the horse, and his statements certainly could have been seen as something more than platonic. Fortunately, unlike his father, Lorenz was open to love of any kind. Channeling some of his younger self, Lorenz gave a dazzling grin. “How could you not be? I’m an incredible specimen.”

Sylvain laughed, a beautiful bell of a laugh that Lorenz hadn’t heard since before the war. “I dunno if ‘specimen’ is the word I’d use,” Approaching him, Sylvain threw one arm around Lorenz’s waist and used the other to cup his cheek, “But yeah, incredible about covers it.” 

As Lorenz captured Sylvain’s lips in a kiss, for the first time in his life, he felt grounded. This was quite possibly the only decision he had ever made without his father’s input, and by the goddess it was worth it. Sylvain had had practice kissing, and somehow still had soft lips despite the raging war around them. It was beautiful. By far the best kiss Lorenz had ever had, and it probably helped that they were in love with each other. 

When they separated, Lorenz’s first thoughts regrettably went to his father. “I believe my father may just kill me for this.”

“He’ll have to go through me first.” Sylvain gave him that trademark charming grin. “And you know, he should be happy you’re in love with someone with a crest. Technically, that fits within the guidelines.”

“Technically, yes. But my father’s never been one to enjoy thinking outside the box. Though,” Lorenz ran his fingers through Sylvain’s hair, “I am honored you’d be willing to kill my father for me. That’s rather sweet of you.”

**Author's Note:**

> It’s after 2am and I don’t beta read so apologies for any mistakes lol


End file.
